1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates in general to a shaft bearing, especially a wheel shaft bearing in a motor vehicle, comprising a rolling bearing with an inner bearing ring which is axially fixed on a shaft, and an outer bearing ring which is radially fixed in a bearing housing comprising a bearing bracket and a bearing cap.
In particular the invention relates to such a shaft bearing for intermediate support of a wheel drive shaft in a vehicle, said shaft having a splined end to be inserted into an element with corresponding splines in the vehicle differential.
In front-wheel drive vehicles with a transverse engine, the gear box with the associated vehicle differential is always laterally displaced from the longitudinal center plane of the vehicle, and this means that the drive shafts between the differential and the front wheels must have different lengths. In order to prevent unevenness during rapid acceleration due to the different lengths of the shafts, resulting in different deflections of the shafts, it is known in the art to support the longer shaft with an intermediate bearing, so that the free length of the shaft outside the bearing will be equal to the length of the shorter shaft.
In previously known shaft bearings of the type described by way of introduction, the bearing housing is primarily designed to radially fix the shaft and the bearing. The shaft is fixed axially with the aid of a lockring on the gear engaging the shaft. After the splined end of the shaft is inserted into a corresponding splined opening in the gear during assembly, the lockring is snapped into a groove on the shaft in order to fix it axially. At the same time as the end of the shaft is inserted into the gear in a differential, the bearing fixed on the shaft is inserted axially into the bearing housing, and the inner locking of the shaft with the aid of the lockring thus results in the bearing being fixed axially in the bearing housing. This axial locking with the air of a lockring makes mounting and possible later removal of the shaft relatively complicated. A heavy axial load may even involve the risk of the lockring being forced out of its groove.
In general, the purpose of the present invention is to provide a shaft bearing which facilitates mounting of the shaft by eliminating the need for extra elements, such as a lockring or the like, for connecting the shaft to the drive means while at the same time retaining the possibility of inserting the shaft and the bearing axially to their final assembly positions. In particular it is intended to provide such a shaft bearing for intermediate support of a wheel drive shaft.